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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

So I pinched a nerve in my right shoulder/neck area and haven't been able to workout much since Thanksgiving. I pushed myself to go to Jump & Drill and Power X Saturday because I pay extra for those classes, I ended up making myself worse and had to skip weights/kickboxing on Sunday. Major bummer. However, today (Wednesday) I am feeling MUCH better and will be going HAM in the gym, okay not really, but I am getting on the treadmill for 40 minutes before taking Shakin It.

TOMS Pink Pop Herringbone ($54) I can't believe I do not already own a pair of TOMS. From what I hear they are super comfy and everytime someone buys a pair of TOMS, the company donates a pair to a child without shoes. Not just at Christmas, but ALL the time.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Oh my goodness, has it really been over ten days since I've posted something? My apologies everyone! I think between crazy work days, and Thanksgiving time just got away from me.

Every Thanksgiving my gym charges a $20 entry fee and 100% of the proceeds go to the charity of choice for that year. Last year we Kickboxed for Cancer:

(post workout November 2010)

This year the three of us Kickboxed for the EJ Austism Foundation, we forgot to take a picture together in our shirts, but here is mine:

This has become one of my favorite holiday traditions, not only am I working out with my mom and sister but we are doing something for others as well. That is a happy Thanksgiving.

Post gym workout(s) we caught the end of the parade, all of the dog show (my personal favorite) and then the eating began. We were surrounded by loved ones and lots of great food, what more could anyone ask for?

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

During my lunch break at work I often watch videos on YouTube to avoid going outside and spending money I don't have( see Mom, I am saving!!!)

Today I stumbled across a review video by iJustine about the Jawbone UP. I'm not sure how I haven't heard about this sooner but I am glad I came across it, I think it's going to be a must have for fitness junkies and Apple lovers like myself....

What is it?

(as described on their website)

Powered by MotionX®, UP combines sophisticated technology and beautiful
design to offer a durable, easy to wear, intelligent, motion-sensing
band that lives on your wrist 24/7 and inspires you to live healthier.

Features?

The Jawbone UP has up to 10 days battery life on a single charge(USB charger), has a vibrating motor that can be used as an alarm clock and a reminder to "move" that day, tracks your sleep patterns and movement, it has a 3.5 MM plug that plugs directly into your iPhone/iPad/iPod,etc., and is sweat proof/water proof.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

5:45 Sunday morning my body was up and ready to go, this is normal right? I hopped up had my coffee and caught up on some YouTube videos before heading to Uppercut & Kickboxing. My muscles were still really sore from Power X but working out always seems to help, even if I am miserable trying to push through the pain...okay that was overly dramatic, but you get the point.

(beautiful sky on my way to the gym)

I'm not sure if it was my low carb, healthy dinner Saturday night or the coffee before the gym Sunday morning, but something made me workout harder and stronger than I have in awhile. For my post workout meal I made myself an egg white omlette with fresh veggies, morning star sausage and laughing cow.

(low cal and delicious, my two favorite things in a meal)

(I LOVE my little snowman mug)

Eddie and I were both off on Monday so we took full advantage and went out to our favorite bar, and had Sunday Funday! It was such a great time, the gym girls came and even though the Jets AND Giants lost, we had a blast!

(My Sunday Funday nails, how appropriate)

(us before we left for the bar)

(I promise I shared)

I'm sure some of you reading this are like OMG she talks about eating healthy and working out, then she goes out and drinks beer??? EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. I refuse to restrict myself from things that I enjoy whether they are unhealthy or not. I drink maybe once every two weeks, I eat healthy 90% of the time and workout hard.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

I use a 1/2 cup of oats, 1/2 cup of almond milk(sometimes 3/4) a drizzle of honey and sprinkle of cinnamon. It's super yummy and gives me energy for my workouts.

In Jump and Drill I find myself getting really frustrated with some of my moves, specifically my backside kick. We have our back to the pad, take one step backwards and kick while moving. My brain cannot handle such moves, even after a year of taking this class I cannot perfect it. So I have two goals for the New Year (so far) be able to do 100 perfect push-ups:right now I can do 10 and 90 messy ones, and work on my kicks.

Power X was brutal. It was windy and 54 degrees, but felt 38 to me. We did a bunch of new moves. On the ropes we had to do the chariot on one leg for :45 seconds, each side. I could not keep my balance to save my life, but the second time around I felt a little more stable. TRX was also tough because it involved moves on one leg as well. By the end of the 30 minutes I was exhausted, but no matter how hard that class is, I always walk away feeling stronger than the week before. I think that's why I keep signing myself up for what some would call "torture."

After Power X I had my weekly Starbucks date with Lauren, Grande coffee in a venti cup with pumpkin spice please!

So delicious.

I spent the remainder of my afternoon alternating doing laundry and watching Harry Potter movies on the couch with these guys:

How cute are they?! I mean I know every mom says that about their "kids" but mine are really cute!

Saturday night is date night. The best night of the week, if you ask me. Eddie and I went to the Walt Whitman mall because I was on the hunt for a pair of J Crew moccasins I saw online

J Crew, 38.50

of course they didn't have them and I was heartbroken, but that's why they invented online shopping!

We roamed around the mall for an hour or so before heading to dinner at Kodiak's where I had the most delicious Black Bean & Corn burger topped with fresh salsa, a slice of swiss cheese and avacado.

(i also took it off the bun and had maybe a handful of the fries, WILLPOWER!)

After dinner we went to Target because my hunt for moccasins was not over, I am not exactly sure what my obsession is with mocs these days but I wasn't going down without a fight. By the way, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Target, it is my favorite place to go and just walk around.

I left Eddie alone for a few minutes and this is what I came back to, gotta love him.

Candy Cane antlers?

I was SO excited they had holiday mugs out already. I picked these two up for mom and I to have our morning coffee in.

FOUND A PAIR! They're not as pretty as the J Crew ones but they were half the price and are a great alternative until I can get my hands on the ones I really want.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

I have today and Monday off this weekend, and I am looking forward to two things: Working Out & relaxing! Today was a busy but fun day.

I started the morning off with breakfast(oatmeal with blueberries) and coffee before taking Bollywood Sweat at the gym

(pre-workout pic)

For those wondering, Bollywood Sweat is a class with 30 minutes of high cardio, 20 minutes of "bolly-inspired" dancing followed by abs and stretching.

After the gym I showered and had a snack, Chobani with Kashi and a drizzle of honey, my favorite.

(it tastes much better than it looks I promise, and it has PROTEIN-perfect post workout)

Then it was time for errands with Mom and Eddie, we went to Costco, where I had two samples: one was colby jack cheese(delicious) and the other was roasted red pepper "skinny" hummus on a cracker(also delicious). I meant to take pictures but I was too busy eating to photograph, whoops!

After Costco we went to a few stores, Eddie picked out a new winter coat and I won 25$ on a scratch off! Pretty great day if you ask me!

For lunch I made "Buffalo Chicken Salad" which was so tasty and only 180 calories!!!

(I'll post the recipe soon!)

I think I filled this cup up 12 times today. Yay hydration!

I ended the day with babysitting the neighbors babies for a few hours and then came home to this little guy:

:) love my pups!

Overall it was a nice day off, I hope to be asleep by 10 to make sure I am ready for tomorrow's Jump & Drill and PowerX workouts.

One of my best friends sent me this pic that she took while running through Philly and I had to share:

Monday, November 7, 2011

I spend a lot of time on my iPhone, my fiance would go as far as saying I spend too much time on it(is there such a thing?) So when I come across a new app that is not only great but free I get overly excited. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the "caloriecounter.com" app:

When you open the app for the first time this is the screen you will see

(you can register right on your phone)

After putting in your personal information you will see this screen:

Here you can see how many calories you've burned VS consumed and at the bottom you have other screen options to log your food, activity, weight etc.

Here is a view of your food tracking area. My favorite feature of this app is the ability to SCAN the barcode on the actual product and the nutritional facts just pop up!

(This is a view of the scanning screen)

Once the product has successfully scanned you will see this. How cool is that!?

Then all you need to do is add to log and it will bring you to this next screen:

It doesn't get any easier than this folks. However, if scanning your food isn't an option you can also track your food by speaking the information(this is still in beta mode, so there are issues) or simply track it the old-fashioned way by typing it in on your own.

Yesterday was my company's annual off site meeting at the Waldorf Astoria. This was my first time at the famed hotel and let me just say it is B-E-A-U-TIFUL! I wish I had taken more pictures but my iPhone was dead pretty much all day and I didn't want to be that weirdo at the work party taking pictures of the hotel. So this is what I got

This is where we had breakfast

Grand Ballroom Ceiling, it was beautiful this picture doesn't do it justice

Grand Ballroom, where we spent the majority of our day.

The food situation was difficult because they served us breakfast, lunch AND dinner and it was catered. For breakfast I had coffee and half of a stale bagel, lunch was half of a grilled veggie wrap with hummus(yum) and half of a turkey club(gross, the bacon was so thick and salty I couldn't eat it) along with a taste of potato salad. We had a snack break at around 3 pm where I ate the biggest, most delicious chocolate chip cookie followed by veggie chips. By the time 5 pm rolled around we were all ready to PAR-TAY, and that I did. We had a total of 3 different rooms for the after party, each room had two bars, and food buffets. All of the options were unhealthy, there were pastas, fried foods, cheeses,breads and crackers. I decided to skip dinner ( bad idea) and have wine instead( even worse of an idea). There were photo booths where I took pictures like this:

There was also Karaoke( which I thankfully did not participate in) and the other room had a DJ with a dance floor where I spent a good 2 hours shakin it. I had an absolute blast, I would go as far as saying I had too much fun as I am dealing with a little hangover today at work.

The way I see it is I ate moderately well, mingled with co-workers and worked up a sweat while having fun. All in all a successful Tuesday!

Welcome

Hi! I'm Carlyn. I started this blog in 2011 when I was determined to lose weight I had gained in college and successfully lost 50+ lbs. Then came motherhood where I gained 40 lbs back, and have since lost 30.
Over time I realized life isn't about the scale or the
inches around your waist but what you do with your days, everyday. Join me as I share journey in motherhood, wifedom and fitness/health with arthritis.